Today, obviously, it came to a head, as in a bombshell (to those who don’t follow us, anyhow) Jimmy Haslam announced the firing of Michael Lombardi and the gradual withdrawal from operations of Joe Banner. Additionally, he announced that Ray Farmer was being promoted as the new GM, something else we mentioned as a very real probability. While it might seem sudden and dishevelled to many, this has been in the works for a long, long time. Let’s take a walk through the past then, and see how we got here.

The groundwork for all of this actually happened as part of the deal that allowed Jimmy Haslam to purchase the Cleveland Browns. As part of the deal (a non-public part of the deal, mind you), Jimmy was required by the NFL to take on Joe Banner as CEO of the franchise. This was presented by the League as a way to help Haslam transition into ownership, and give the League a voice in the Browns consistently struggling front office. Banner actually saw to the inclusion and eventual hiring of Lombardi before Chud was hired, though Lombardi was announced after Chud, to ideally help lessen the inevitable criticism over bringing Lombardi back to the Browns. Sources close to the situation then told us that Haslam was not thrilled about having Banner and Lombardi essentially forced on him, but not wanting to make enemies out of friends, he accepted the deal and bought the team.

Shortly after the purchase was announced, as you all remember, Jimmy H ran into his still on-going legal issues. This left most of the power and day to day control of the organization in the hands of Banner and Lombardi. Which, from sources in Berea, they ran a very secretive, power centric office. They alienated workers, created a borderline hostile environment, and shucked accountability for mistakes, such as the failure in last years draft and free agency. They played fast and loose with Chud, one day accusing him of failing to support players, other days demanding that he cut players (Greg Little, Shawn Laovao) to set an example. The longer this went on, the more the rumors started to leak of trouble in Berea. The Banner/Lombardi regime, however, continued to sell the story of a friendly, excited work place to the likes of Mary Kay and other beat reporters, who gladly gobbled up the stories of hope and happiness. The truth, however, would not stay hidden forever.

As the season went on, it became more and more clear that Lombardi had failed utterly in free agency and the draft the previous year, and we began to see a gradual shift where Ray Farmer had more and more sway in the personnel department. Eventually, before season’s end, Haslam had set Farmer up as the de facto head of personnel, as we saw with Farmer being the sole Browns executive present at any collegiate games and major events toward the end of the regular season and after. After Chud was fired, we heard that Lombardi was next to go. The longer the situation in Berea dragged on, the less Lombardi was included in areas where you’d normally expect to see a GM. This withdrawal was sold as Lombardi not being the face of the franchise, but investigative fans were already looking beneath the surface to see why Lombardi had suddenly vanished from the public’s eye.

The “straw that broke the camel’s back”, I’m told, was the push that Lombardi made for Josh McDaniels. We reported early that McDaniels was all but hired as the Browns next head coach, as our source close to Lombardi said that Lombardi had worked out the particulars behind the scenes before Chud was even fired. When McDaniels turned the job down, it was the last black eye that Jimmy Haslam was prepared to take due to his CEO and GM. Haslam took over the head coach search himself, and was extremely impressed by Mike Pettine. As we know, Pettine was later hired by Haslam.

That takes us up to last week, when we first reported what we could from our investigation into the rumors around Lombardi, as our source (per Shawn) said a move was likely to happen before the draft, and another independent source from Concede put the “Firing Timeline” as before the Combine. We called out thatthis article written by the often wrong Mary Kay Cabot was conveniently posted the day after we broke the rumors. At this point, Haslam had already maneuvered a replacement for Lombardi (in Ray Farmer) and hand-picked his own head coach (Pettine). It was at this point that Haslam decided to liquidate Joe Banner’s position, and restructure the Browns so that the GM and Coach both had a direct line to his office, and so that he would personally oversee the day-to-day operations of the organization.

In probably the most Godfather/Game of Thrones narrative you could imagine for a football franchise, you can see how this entire tale of backdoor dealings, power struggles and behind the scenes maneuvers has led us to today, when Haslam gave the word and seized complete control of his organization. Where will this all end up? Too early to say, and I’d be lying if I said I had some clairvoyance to that end. But, I can’t help but feel like the good guys won this round.

Shawn is an Army Sergeant, Husband to @MrsStarr, dad to three and aspiring Browns writer. You can follow Shawn on Twitter @ShawnMStarr or the page @DawgPoundNews

MKC… sigh. She hates me/us. I never really got why, since we're so small compared to her audience, but… well. I just had to take a shot at her in this one, because I swear to God her little article about the love fest in Berea was a direct response to our first post about Lombardi being in jeopardy.

While most of this seems very logical, I highly doubt the NFL required Banner as part of the Deal. There have been many other owners with virtually NO Football experienced (unlike Haslem), who were not required to bring on a CEO. Think someone recommended Banner and Jimmy bought into it……as he said in the first place. So I think that part of this is a push. The rest however make sense.

Eh. While I get your point, and truthfully, I can't give you hard evidence of it, I trust the source. The same source who helped us break this thing open last week. Still, your questions on it are valid.

Nice article! I had posted over at browns board in January that I would not be surprised if Haslam fired Banner and Lombardi and promoted Farmer to GM once he had a new head coach in place, and so it has happened. The things that tipped me off in addition to Lombardi's strange absence from all GM-like duties (like the Senior Bowl and all press conferences) was the extent to which Banner appeared nervous even in the Chud firing press conference. It also seemed interesting the amount of play Farmer was getting in the media, almost as if people were feeding stories about him to increase his visibility. I also thought it was extremely strange how silent this front office was during the coaching search, whereas we saw healthier organizations were regularly updating fans/media about their search.

Hreat article finally we get the truth hopefully we can turn this franchise around haslam took over the flying j after his father started it so he got a lil bit of business since even tho he was under investigation

MKC was Lombardi's mouthpiece. Every time something negative came out, she provided his spin. The "Three Stooges" stuff stuck a little too much for Jimmy's liking. Of course that's because there was a lot of truth in it.

You've got a new fan right here, great article. I've heard so many different things today on local sports talk stations and none of them were as solid as this. I listen to local sports talk whenever I am driving and never heard any one mention how Haslam got married to Banner since ownership changed hands.

I dont have a Twitter account, but you've inspired me to start one and youll be the first ones I "follow"

Thanks so much Mike, I appreciate it. It's funny, I actually started my Twitter account during the last coaching search (post Shurmur) because a friend said it was the fastest way to get the news. It's really handy, as it turns out. Anyhow, welcome and thanks for the support!

Great piece!!! Any "idea" as to who the infamous mystery coaching candidate was? Also in conjunction with your piece I think Alec shiener is tied into this as well. He hires and asst gm and president to replace his spoon fed gm and CEO. Struck me as leading to this all along.

What happened yesterday made my day. I said2 weeks ago the best move the Browns could make was to get rid of those 2 clowns. my dog knows more about football than those 2. I feel this year is going to be a better year for all of us. GO BROWNS!

Despite being a HUGE Chiefs fan, I am a big fan of the Browns. I really hope they make Hoyer starter so they can actually have a winning season and maybe people will respect them. I drafted Josh Gordon in fantasy last year and I got laughed at because I drafted a suspended player, but they weren't laughing when he went on his run and I was beating people down to the core, along with, suprisingly, Billy Cundiff. Yes, I will actually consider drafting him over JC.

not one source is named there, so have to be wary about a lot of what was written.

"Banner actually saw to the inclusion and eventual hiring of Lombardi before Chud was hired, though Lombardi was announced after Chud, to ideally help lessen the inevitable criticism over bringing Lombardi back to the Browns."

As someone who worked with Lombardi at the time of his hiring at NFL Films, I know for a fact his hiring was not set in stone (and almost fell through two days before)

Shawn thanks for the inside information. It makes sense to me. There were some interviews that Jimmy never even went to but he spent a lot of time with Mike. I actually like Mike and think that he is a fresh presence in Berea. I think Jimmy was tired of being embarrassed by his NFL mandated employees. But then again I still think the NFL is punishing Browns fans for embarrassing the NFL following the Baltimore move. The NFL set the Browns back by the deadlines they imposed. The Browns needed one more full year to get a qualified staff together yet they had to do it all in a few months. Curiously, Lombardi was just hired by the Patriots?

[…] information bits even care. Still, it’s relevant, and it ties in to the expose’ I wrote on the behind the scenes details on the firing of Mike Lombardi and Joe Banner back in February. Why write this now? I don’t know. I don’t know if there will […]

[…] I get it to an extent, Lombardi is his friend. He wants to shame the team that fired him. The irony though is that everything he’s accusing the Browns of now, actually happened when Lombardi was running the show. If you want details, read the exposé we wrote shortly after the Browns cleaned house last February. […]